Explore Adobe's Adaptive Presets

Get to grips with this new functionality in Lightroom and Photoshop's Camera Raw

- James Paterson

TOOL SCHOOL

The latest updates to Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop include an exciting new approach to using presets. By building artificial intelligence into presets, Adobe has taken things a step further. Available in Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic (v11.4), the new Adaptive Presets are powered by machine learning. They work in a similar way to normal presets, but rather than altering the entire image, they zero in on either the subject or sky, before applying tailored tonal effects to the area.

Additionally, a new control lets us fine-tune a preset’s strength, and new premium preset sets offer a host of effects tailored towards different subject matter.

With these improvements, Adobe continues the trend in implementing AI into its applications. Aided by machine learning, complex edits are gradually getting easier and quicker, which is great news for photographers.

1 Adaptive Presets

Adaptive Presets work by employing AI to isolate either the sky or subject before adding tonal settings to boost the area. You can make powerful selective adjustments to parts of your photo with a couple of clicks. Here, the ‘Blue Drama’ preset isolates the sky and pulls out some of the delicate cloud detail, while the ‘Warm Pop’ preset identifies the red car and boosts the colour and contrast.